News

Back Home
September 27, 2017

GOP abandons quest to repeal the ACA


After repeatedly coming up short of votes, President Trump and Congressional Republicans are finally admitting defeat in their years-long quest to repeal (and not really replace) the Affordable Care Act (ACA), leaving as many as 32 million people without health insurance.

The most recent iteration, a bill by Senators Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy, sought to trade access to affordable health care for tax breaks for corporate CEOs.

The Republicans were at least one vote short of passing the Graham-Cassidy bill before a procedural deadline this week. When Senators John McCain of Arizona and Senator Susan Collins of Maine both announced that they would not support the bill, GOP leaders finally announced that they would not move forward.

The Graham-Cassidy bill would have:

The AARP, the AMA, and dozens of other medical and advocacy organizations opposed the legislation, which would have done great harm to patients, hospitals, and health care systems across the country.